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Topic: Orange peel and cranberries? (Read 1625 times)

I'm planning on making a Wensleydale (my first) for Christmas this weekend. I saw that some people like to put cranberries in their Wensleydales, so I thought I would like to try that. I also picked up some dried orange rind and orange salt from a recent trip to Ehime, a part of Japan famous for its citrus fruits, and thought I would rather like to try an orange Wensleydale, too.My plan is to make up a normal 16l batch, and split it into three at the salting stage. One third will be plain salted Wensleydale, another third will have the dried cranberries and the third third will have the orange peel and salt. We're already into November, so the cheeses won't be aged very long.

The orange peel is very, very dry. On the packet it suggests boiling it in syrup for use in cooking. I'm thinking of either leaving it soaking in water overnight, or gently boiling it in water the day before to turn it back into soft orange peel. I would then add either just the flavoured liquid or the liquid plus peel to the last third of curds, with the orange salt. Here's my question: would this do terrible things to the pH of the last third and render it incapable of turning into edible cheese? Would it be better to leave out the peel altogether and just use the orange salt?

I have used dried orange peel (small, granular looking peel) that I have rehydated in hot water for maybe 15 minutes, then drained on a paper towel so they weren't "wet" going in the cheese. The recipe I used called for layering orange peel (and crushed coriander seed) between layers of curd, so it was not mixed in the curd as I suspect you are thinking of doing. I wouldn't think it would matter though, which ever way you do it.

I also "infused" about a quart of milk before starting the make, and added that infused milk to the remainder of the milk and proceeded with the recipe. You'll get the slightest hint of orange through the cheese that way also.

Well, I did this yesterday. I more or less followed the recipe in 200 Easy Cheeses, tweaked to deal with the added flavourings.

16l Coop low-temperature pasteurised milk （低温殺菌)mesophilic culture - the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp mesophilic and 1/8tsp 'aroma mesophilic', which I didn't have. What I did have was the last 1/3 of a pkt of Choosit mesophilic MA400, and so I used that. It didn't look anywhere near 5/8tsp, but it says on the packet that it's enough for 50l, so I reckoned 1/3pkt should do 16l OK.3/4tsp calcium chloride3/4tsp liquid veggie rennet50g dried cranberries30g dried orange peel2tbs salt1tbs orange salt

Warm the milk to 30℃, sprinkle in culture and draw into the milk after 5 minutes. Leave for 90 minutes.Add calcium chloride, then rennet, leave for 30 minutes till a clean break is reached.Cut curds to 1 cm (the recipe says 0.9cm, but I'm not to a millimetre...), rest for 10 minutes.Warm curds, taking 35 minutes to reach 35℃, stirring gently and continuously. Let curds settle.Drain off whey, leaving curds in the pot to mat and form a spongy mass.Cut mass into 4 blocks and cheddar for 40 minutes, turning the blocks every 10 minutes and keeping the pot warmSlice into pieces 1cmx5cm.

Here is where I separated the curds into three.

1. Plain Wensleydale: Mix in 1 tbs salt, pack into prepared mould.

2. Cranberry: From reading the small print on the packet I found that the dried cranberries were ready sliced (good, saves me a job) and lightly coated in oil to stop them sticking together (not good). So I poured hot water over them to rinse off the oil and drained them on adsorbent kitchen paper before mixing them with the curds and 1tsp salt and packing into the mould.

3. I had left the dried orange peel to soak in hot water overnight. The peel swelled until I had far more than I could use in the cheese and quite a lot of the flavour seemed to have gone into the soaking water, so I thought I would colour the water with a few drops of annatto and let the curds steep in that while I was dealing with the other two-thirds. As I was pouring the soaking water over the curds, my hand slipped and there was bright orange-coloured water all over the kitchen counter, very little actually on the curds. After I had finished kicking myself around the kitchen I appraised the situation, saw that the bit of water that had hit the curds did seem to be imparting a bit of colour, and decided to continue. I mixed in the tbs of orange salt and just a scattering of the peel. I thought that more than that would be too much.

So, everything into moulds for an initial very light press, then flipped and pressed at 21kg for a couple of hours, then flipped again and pressed at 25kg overnight. This morning the cheeses seemed reasonably well-knit but still a bit craggy around the edges, so I dipped them in hot water and they're now in the press again for another few hours.

After a couple of days air-drying, I'll wax these and put them in the cave. The plain Wensleydale will perhaps profit from a longer aging period, but the flavoured ones will be out for Christmas. I hope the fruit behaves itself and doesn't ferment on me.

Out of the press, dried and ready for waxing. I didn't manage to get all of the crevices out of the cranberry, but the other two seem to have knit quite nicely, and I'm well chuffed with them. It isn't very clear on the photo, but the orange one does seem to have a bit of quite pretty and highly appropriate yellowy marbling.Can't wait for Christmas!

The cranberry had gone a bit puffy under the wax, so I decided it would be a good idea to open them up and check they would be OK for Christmas.They are not just OK, they are wonderful! The cranberries haven't fermented at all (well I suppose they must have fermented a bit to make the puffiness, but it isn't apparent in the taste), and the orange tastes decidedly but not overpoweringly orangey.The texture is also creamy, with a touch of crumbliness.

One small problem is that the cranberries on the outside of the cheese tend to fall off and leave a hole - some got torn off with the wax. Next time I think I would sprinkle the fruit on the curds in the mould so that there was no fruit on the outside, instead of mixing it in with the salt before the curds go in the mould.

I thought about solving the problem by adding ingredients to 2/3 of the curds before pressing, and "building the wheel" with a layer without additives, but your idea of adding the extras in the mold sounds a lot easier.I am going to try that too.